Sacha Modolo sprints to stage-one victory in Post Danmark Rundt

Sacha Modolo (Colnago - CSF Inox ) took the biggest win of his young career when he sprinted to victory in stage one of the Post Danmark Rundt, beating Danish riders Matti Breschel (Rabobank) and Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank). Four more Italians, including Daniele Bennati, followed in the subsequent placings. Modolo took over the race lead with his victory after the 175 kilometers around Esbjerg. In fourth place was Daniele Colli, who is having a great return after a break from cancer.The winner of the last three years, Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard Trek) suffered a puncture at a bad time and lost over a minute.

It was Modolo's fourth win of the season. The rider first made headlines last year with a fourth place in Milano-Sanremo. Italian national coach Paolo Bettini has named him to a test event for the 2012 London Olympics, on August 14. "This will have the look of the future,” said Bettini. “We will have some very young talented riders, like Modolo, as well as experienced riders like Luca Paolini. This will give everyone very strong motivation for the race.”

Breschel has been named the captain of the Rabobank squad, with even Oscar Freire serving as a domestique for the rider on home soil. Breschel came close to winning, but had to let Modolo cross the line first. Rabobank directeur sportif Jan Boven was still satisfied. "A good marker for the rest of the week and we did well in the classifications," he said.

Rabobank worked hard but came up short in the end. "The difference at the line was decisive, so it is ok," Boven said, not too disappointed. Freire helped launch the sprint for Breschel. "You can't have a better one. But that's Oscar. He acts for and thinks about the team. We decided with him that this week he will also get to choose his ride."

Breschel wants to get a very good result after finishing fifth overall the past three years and third in 2007. In each of those editions, he also wore the leader's jersey for at least one day. "This Tour is for Matti what is for Dutchmen the Olympia's Ronde or the Eneco Tour, maybe even a bit more than that," Boven explained. "We saw today that he is in good shape and that the chemistry in the team is extraordinary. We have a lot of faith."

Other good news for Rabobank was the return of Coen Vermeltfoort, who broke both wrists when he fell off the prologue start ramp in the Delta Tour Zeeland. It didn't matter that Vermeltfoort came in last. "Coen was still afraid with his back, but it went well. Obviously he is missing competition time and race toughness, but he will get there," Boven said.

A quartet went up the road with Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1) Nikola Aistrup (VPC Concordia), René Jørgensen (Christina Watches-Onfone) and Patrick Clausen (PostDanmark) and built a lead of 5'30 after 45km. The sprint was won by Aistrup ahead of Jørgensen and Clausen. The latter dropped off soon afterwards.

Bazzana took the KOM points, with the peloton still around three minutes behind. The break was caught with less than 40 kilometers remaining. Fuglsang, Rasmussen and others were caught out in the Danish cross winds, eventually finishing in a second group around a minute behind the winner.